9 Unconventional Ways to Remodel Your Home

Conventional wisdom, as it relates to houses, is often too much convention and not enough wisdom.

Every year, somebody publishes a list of which conventional home improvements will give you the best (or the worst) return on your remodeling investment: Remodel a bathroom. Replace your siding. Don't build a swimming pool. Paint everything neutral colors.

If "return on investment" (ROI) is why you bought a home, or why you're remodeling one, you can stop reading now. Because the rest of this article isn't for you.

Three, two, one ... still here?

You invest in your home to improve livability first, not value. If you get more value in the process, consider it a bonus, but don't make ROI your prime directive.

Kitchen cabinets are expensive. Half of them are up high on the wall where they're hard to reach, and the wall space they take up could be better used for windows. A pantry takes up less space, stores a lot more, is much easier to use, and costs less to build.

2. Comfortable shower instead of big bathtub.

My firm does a lot of work in late-70s/early-80s neighborhoods that are loaded with huge tubs. We're taking them all out, one at a time, and replacing them with comfortably-sized showers (not the racquetball-court sized ones you see in home shows) that people actually use every day.

A shower takes up less space, uses less hot water, and is far more sanitary than a big tub.

3. Group windows together facing best views instead of scattering them around the house.

Got a great view somewhere? Bring it into the house with lots of glass. Take excess windows from bedrooms and baths and use them to connect the inside of the house with the outside.

We once remodeled a house on the coast of Lake Erie that had one window -- one -- facing the lake. Hey pal, did ya notice the Great Lake in your backyard?

4. Keep ceiling heights reasonable for the room size.

"Volume" ceilings do not automatically make better rooms. They just make taller rooms. Rooms that are harder to decorate and more expensive to heat and cool. Instead, focus attention on a view, a large fireplace, or other element and away from the ceiling height. Use wall trim and multiple paint colors to break up the volume of the room and create the illusion of height.

5. Spend more time planning, and less money building.

I toured a client's existing home before we began designing the new one. "Of course," she said as we peeked in on the kids' rooms, "these bedrooms are way too small." Really? I thought. The smallest was probably 14-by-15 feet. But each bedroom had at least one door or one window on each wall. Pretty, but the design left little room for furniture.

I suggested we more carefully design the new bedrooms -- keeping the furniture placement in mind. In the end, we were able to easily accommodate each child's bedroom furniture comfortably in smaller bedrooms than what they'd had before.

6. Consider the simple elegance of the box-form house.

Subtlety and restraint used to be virtues in home design. These days, far too often, inexperienced designers attempt to attract attention to their homes by adding more stuff --more gables, more materials, more bays, etc. Others know that proper proportion, scale and details are what turn heads.

The simple box house is a classic American form that's survived 150 years of stylistic changes. Greek Revival, American Four-Square, Tidewater Georgian -- all simple boxes. Great proportions, great details -- done.

And here's a bonus -- the box form is easier and cheaper to build, and because it encloses a larger volume in less perimeter, it's less expensive to heat, cool and maintain.

7. Share part of the master bath.

This isn't for everyone, but it really tightens up the budget and the floor plan. Make the toilet and a sink in the master bath accessible to the rest of the house, instead of building a separate half bath -- it won't be used much by you during the day, and rarely by guests at night.

Why have two baths when one will do?

8. Spend it when you have it, not before.

Sure, it'd be great to have those granite countertops now, but your budget's tight and granite is 10 times the cost of laminate tops. So how about putting in nice laminate tops now, and replacing them with granite in five years when you have the cash? You can easily do the same with light fixtures, flooring, window treatments.

9. Compartmentalized bathrooms -- two baths in the space of one and a half.

Each kid doesn't need his/her own bath, but they do need privacy and room to share. A compartmentalized bath puts two sinks in one room and the toilet and tub/shower in another -- so three kids can use the bath at once and keep a little more harmony in the family home.

I doubt any of these ideas will ever make a magazine's list of "Best Remodeling ROI" projects. But every one saves you money over a more "conventional" design strategy, and every one increases the livability of your home.

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Spring Home Maintenance Checklist

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9 Unconventional Ways to Remodel Your Home

For about $75 to $200, a technician will tune up your cooling system to manufacturer-rated efficiency -- and you won't sweat the first hot weekend with an out-of-commission air conditioner.

Look for a heating and air conditioning contractor that belongs to the Air Conditioning Contractors of America, employs technicians certified by the North American Technician Excellence (NATE) program and follows the protocol for the ACCA's national standard for residential maintenance. Call your electric utility to see whether it offers incentives.

Note: Dirty filters make your air conditioner work harder, increasing energy costs and possibly damaging your equipment. Check them monthly and replace as needed, or at least every three months.

Air conditioners draw moisture from interior air, called condensate, which must run off outside. If sediment and algae clog the drains, water may back up, making your home more humid or creating water damage. Technicians will check the drains during a tune-up; if they clean them out, it could cost up to $100.

If you live in a humid climate, you may want to check and clean the drains yourself periodically. For an oddly riveting demonstration, watch this YouTube clip as the video's star suctions gobs of algae from a drain with a wet vac.

Energy Star says that for an initial investment of $50 to $150 for a programmable thermostat, you can save about $180 annually on cooling and heating bills -- if you can live with higher indoor temperatures in summer (and cooler temperatures in winter). Set the "hold" or "vacation" feature for a constant, efficient temperature when you're away for the weekend or on vacation.

In summer, you can make those settings more tolerable if you install ceiling fans. Just remember that a ceiling fan cools people, not a room, so turn it off when you leave the room.

Before you heft units to the window sills, check out this YouTube video for practical tips that will help you maximize energy efficiency -- and keep out burglars and bugs, too.

Also, take a moment to clean them. Remove a unit's front grill, then its air filter, and clean dust and dirt from the filter. Check the filter periodically throughout the cooling season.

If you live in a hot, dry climate and cool your home with an evaporative, or "swamp," cooler, you must drain and clean the cooler seasonally to remove built-up sediment and minerals.

Energysavers.gov says that the more a cooler runs, the more maintenance it will need, requiring that you look at the pads, filters, reservoir and pump at least monthly. For more information on evaporative coolers, visit www.h2ouse.org.

If the gap around a door or window is wider than a nickel, you need to reapply exterior caulk, says Bill Richardson, past president of the American Society of Home Inspectors. Check window-glazing putty, too, which seals glass into the window frame.

Add weatherstripping around doors, making sure that you can't see any daylight from inside your home. You'll save money on air conditioning and you won't have to repeat this task in the fall.

Nature's detritus -- decomposed leaves, twigs, and spring petals and seeds (think maple-tree "helicopters") -- may be worse in spring than in fall. Gutter cleaning generally costs $90 to $225 for a 2,000-square-foot home (with about 180 linear feet of gutter).

Add extensions to downspouts to carry water at least 3 to 4 feet away from your home's foundation. You can use 4-inch corrugated plastic pipe (about $7 for 10 feet).

An easy way to inspect the roof to find damaged, loose or missing shingles without risking life and limb is to use a pair of binoculars. If need be, hire a handyman to repair a few shingles ($95 to $125 for asphalt shingles, according to www.costhelper.com). If the damaged section is more extensive, you'll need a roofer (who will charge $100 to $350 to replace a 10-by-10-square-foot area). Check and repair breaks in the flashing seals around vent stacks and chimneys, too.

If your home has a flat roof with a parapet (a short wall around the perimeter), look for wear and tear in the roof surface. Check the flashing that seals the joint between the parapet and roof. Heavy snow can split the flashing, resulting in leaks. If you need repairs, look for a roofer at the Web site of the National Roofing Contractors Association.

Clean out any roof drains or scuppers (openings in the parapet that allow water to drain) to avoid ponding, which could damage your roof and cause leaks below. A "roof repair" or "sewer and pipe cleaning" company can help.